NITI Aayog to establish 1,000 Atal Tinkering labs in Jammu and Kashmir
11 Dec 2021 13:24:00
Srinagar, December 11: NITI Aayog is establishing as many as 1,000 Atal Tinkering Laboratories in Jammu and Kashmir. Of these, 187 will be established by the end of this FY. This was conveyed at a high-level meeting headed by the Chief Secretary Arun Kumar Mehta, to take stock of arrangements for opening Atal Tinkering Laboratories (ATL) in several educational institutions of Jammu and Kashmir.
ATL is an initiative which is boosting cognitive development of children, where they are given avenues to experiment, increase their understanding about scientific ideas. From 187 of this year’s target, 31 are being established across government schools of the UT. 50 will come up in various educational institutions, like KVs, JNVs, and private schools.
The process for establishing remaining 106 labs will be shortly initiated. The chief secretary directed the School Education Department to fix the timelines for establishing these labs in several districts of the UT and emphasise on nomination of trainers and champions against suitable incentives.
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The department was asked to ensure regular maintenance of infrastructure and equipment of these centres in convergence with other government departments. Mehta impressed upon the department to promote scientific temper among the students in areas such as machine learning and artificial intelligence by proactively engaging them in various experiments and scientific activities.